1. Field of This Invention
This invention relates to a process for the production of carnitine hydrochloride.
2. Prior Art
It is known to produce carnitine from acetoacetic ester. At the same time the bromoacetoacetic ester is produced by bromation, the latter is converted by means of NaBH.sub.4 to the .beta.-hydroxy-.alpha.-bromobutyric acid ester. The latter is reacted with trimethylamine and the developing .alpha.-trimethylammonium-.beta.-hydroxybutyric acid ester bromide is saponified into carnitine hydrochloride [F. D'Alo and A. Masserini, Chemical Abstracts, Vol. 60, 10777 g (1964)]. Because of the reduction with sodiumborohydride, this synthesis will probably remain limited for economic reasons merely to the laboratory scale; moreover the yields are low.
It is known to use epichlorohydrin as a starting material. In such case, one proceeds in such a way that epichlorohydrin is first of all reacted with trimethylaminehydrochloride, the reaction product is converted with NaCN into the carnitine nitrile chloride and the latter is hydrolyzed to carnitine (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,135,788). In such process the products of all the intermediate steps are isolated. The yield amounts to about 74 percent.